Die Young Part 1
by diamondisis
Summary: 4 years after the movie, Ted Sanders and girlfriend Brooke Shy find their way back to each other and tie the knot. Is Brooke trying to sabotage the wedding or is something much more serious going on.


p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 27.0px; text-align: center; font: 18.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"strongDie Young Part I/strong/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"strongChapter 1: Brooke/strong/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"It basically starts out as no big deal, at least for now, I don't think it's a big deal. My newlywed husband Teddy (I suppose he goes by Ted now that we are out of college and hasn't been Teddy since he was 21) Sanders and I are on our honeymoon at an Americanized resort in Mexico, kind of lame to go to Mexico and not have the authentic experience of actually being in Mexico, but hell Ted and I are kind of shallow that way, hell we've always been shallow, I mean we were prom king and queen in high school after all and pretty much the Alphas in our Sororities/Fraternities. Despite all the drama we've gone through in college, me sleeping with Ted's best buddy Pete, (Which I'm definitely not proud of) Ted getting a series of new girlfriends, Ted was down on his knees proposing to me. It was kind of pathetic now that I think about it, okay really pathetic we'd hardly seen each other in four years, We were both doing our own modeling gigs on opposite sides of town. Then one night after a couple of beers I assume, Ted called me up and said he really wanted to see me. He was drunk, I knew this wasn't for real. I usually don't get nervous around other people, especially not Ted, but we hadn't seen each other in literally ages, so yeah I was nervous about him dropping by at my house, or I'm sorry not dropping by at my house, he actually expected me to drop everything I was doing and drive to the bar and come see him and give him a ride home, since he was so drunk he couldn't even walk straight. "Sure" I had said, not knowing what else to say. It turned out that Ted had, had a terrible breakup with a girl named Victoria. He was hunched over crying and I imediatly knew that it was bad. I placed my hand on his shoulder. Beer bottles and upside down shot glasses and a shattered martini glass sat in front of him. "I'm so sorry for your loss" I said rubbing his back, "Girls can be such bitches can't they? Not that boys are much better" Ted stared up at me in a drunk stupor, "Hey" I said, "You're really drunk, let me take you over to my house we can talk about it there" "I'm never speaking to her again" He slurred. "Hey gimme your phone" I had said, "Victoria's number, let me delete it" "Fine by me" He slurred, I scroll down and do not see the name Victoria, but I do find the name Vychtouriyah, "This must be her" I said "Is that seriously how the girl spells her name?" "Yeah" Ted said, "Really is" He slurred. "Wow" I said, "What is she from Narnia or something?" "She's from Russia. She's a Russian model in fact" Ted slurred. "C'mon" I said lifting his arm over my shoulder. "Let's go" As soon as we got home, guess what Ted went right for. Guess! That's right, he went straight to the liquor cabinent, "I don't think so" I said, only to realize that I was pretty thirsty for a tequila on the rocks myself. Ted and I talked, kissed and had sex just like old times, only it didn't seem real since he was drunk and I was starting to get a little bit tipsy. Then out of nowhere came the proposal. A very drunk Ted kneeled down on the couch, with the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen. "Brooke will you marry me?" He asked. I then started crying, and I don't mean in that sappy way girls on movies cry when they are proposed to because they are so touched. I cried because I knew it wasn't for real and because I knew I was his rebound from fucking Vychtouriyah the Russian model. I didn't even give him a yes or no answer. I just ran off to the bathroom and sobbed like a little school girl. A couple days later, he proposed to me for real and I started crying once again (And yes I do mean the sappy TV kind of crying) and I actually said yes. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"So now Ted and I are on our honeymoon in Mexico America. We are playing ping pong in the recreational room in the basement of the Hilton. We haven't even started playing, when I suddenly without any warning, slip and slide under the ping pong table. "Brooke what happened?" Ted asks me, "Are you all right?" I am able to pick myself up "What happened?" Ted asks a second time, and it really annoys me because I am just as confused about it as he is. "Clumsy moment" I lie. "You okay?" He asks me again. "Yeah" I say, "So should we keep score or no?" Ted gives me an odd look, but he recovers right away. "All right let's play, 1-40" "Great" I say. I suddenly realize that my hand feels kind of limp, tingly and also kind of inflated like a balloon. I look down at my hand, despite everything it looks normal, as in it has not ballooned three sizes larger, it does however look kind of dead. I try to grasp onto my ping pong racket, but my hands somehow won't cooperate with my brain. I am unable to grasp a hold of the ping pong racket. Chills run down my spine when I realize this isn't the first time something like this has happened to me. At our wedding it happened. I had a great deal of difficulty slipping my ring off of my finger and on to Ted's ring finger. I became so frustrated, I was reduced to tears. Not wanting anyone to see me cry at my wedding, I escaped to the little girls room. People would have probably figured out that my tears were not the happy kind of tears that are shown in the movies, but the frustrated kind of tears, they would probably all make the assumption that I was having some terrible second thoughts about getting married. I sobbed in the bathroom for what felt like hours, when I suddenly heard the door open. "Brooke?" My maid of honor and best friend Whitney asked. "Ted sent me to come check on you. Are you all right sweetie?" I came out the stall with red eyes and puffy cheeks, "What's the matter girl?" Whitney asked. "It's nothing" I lied, "My nail polish is just chipping and it looks really terrible" It was a really stupid lie especially considering the fact that I had only then realized that my sparkly white nail polish was starting to chip off and truth be told it didn't look that horrible" "You're having second thoughts about your wedding aren't you?" Whitney asks handing me a tissue. "That's okay, it happens to a lot of us, It even happened to me, but then I found out that getting married was like the best thing that could have ever happened to me." I couldn't tell her what was really going on. I didn't want anyone not even my BFF worrying about me on my wedding day. Maybe it was just nerves, maybe that was why I was having so much trouble with the ring. But it couldn't have been that, I didn't feel nervous about anything. I came to my wedding feeling very confident, maybe even a little bit too confident. If I didn't have nerves then, I definitely have to say being unable to apply the ring did it for me. I was nervous all right but not in the same way a person is supposed to be nervous on the day of their wedding. Instead of being worried about married life and all that shit, I was worried that maybe there was something seriously wrong with me. Maybe I was dying. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"I slip out of my reverie for a short while. My entire body is racked with fear. My swank tight black dress suddenly feels a little too tight, like I am suffocating. To make matters worse it also feels like someone has thrown a bunch of itching powder or maybe a colony of red ants in it. Beads of sweat fall down my four head. The ping pong racket slips from my limp useless hand and falls to the floor. "What's wrong Brooke? Brooke what's wrong?" Ted asks me. I shake my head. "Nothing's wrong" I lie, "We're on our honeymoon, I'm having a great time, I'm happy" As I say this I realize that my veins have become solid ice. "You're shaking" Ted observes. "You okay?" "Yeah I'm fine" I lie again. "You know what? I'm getting a little bored with ping pong." "Tired of Ping Pong?" He asks, "What are you talking about? We just started playing. What's wrong Brooke?" What's wrong Brooke, what's wrong? What's wrong? WHAT'S WRONG? He's probably going to continue asking me that question until it starts to lose meaning, As a matter a fact I think it already has lost meaning. "I'm just not into ping pong" I lie, "I mean it's just not fun when it's not beer pong" "We could get some beer to play with" Ted suggests. "There's a bar just over there, you don't look so good" He says. Now it feels like my heart has stopped. My stomach feels like it has tied its self in knots. I feel like I'm literally going to throw up. "Are you feeling all right?" he asks me. "Not really, no" I admit "What's wrong?" He asks for about the 50 billionth time that day. "I feel sick" I say and just leave it at that. "Should we go back to the hotel room?" He asks. "Sure" I say "I'd like that" My legs feel as if they are made out of a combination of play-dough and jello. I once again fall. Ted lifts me up from the ground. My legs won't cooperate with my brain and I keep falling down. "What's wrong?" He asks again, that has got to be a record. "Why do you keep falling? Are you okay?" My husband is really starting to sound like a broken record now with all his questioning. "Are you drunk?" He asks me. Truth of the matter is, I am not drunk, I haven't had anything to drink except a couple of cocktails at dinner and that was at 6:00, it is now 12:00. "Yeah" I lie. "I'm very drunk." "You are?" Ted asks, "No you're not, you had two cocktails, we both did." Tears start rolling down my cheeks. "Oh my god!" Ted says, like he knows exactly what is going on. "Somebody roofied your drink didn't they. Oh my god! Brooke!" He begins checking my pupils to check for signs of dilation. He then scoops me up in his arms and carries me back to the hotel room like how a person would carry a sack of potatoes. I have been roofied before, and this is nothing like it. Besides if I had my drink roofied, wouldn't it have taken affect right away? Those things are known to take affect at once. Besides, if someone was trying to date rape me, he would have taken off with me, he wouldn't have handed me back to my husband. I do however feel drunk, or at least buzzed, I guess the best way I can put it is that my brain is feeling foggy. When Ted carries me to our room, a strange wave of vertigo sweeps over me. It is a combination of the vertigo and just all the scared feelings in my stomach that causes me to vomit the Zarzuela I had ordered for dinner at the Spanish (Not Mexican, but Spanish restaurant) all over Ted's expensive new shoes, that his friend Scoonie had bought him as a wedding present and a little bit on my new slick black dress, from my friend Candy who I do modeling with, who is also my boss, but we get along really well, when we are not doing modeling stuff. Ted makes a face but shrugs it off. "You all right?" He asks me again. I have never heard Ted be more repetitive than he's being tonight. I burst into fresh tears. "Damn it Ted" I sob, "I'm so sorry" "It's all right" He says, then strokes his fingers through my hair. "I'm sorry I had to ruin this for you. We're only one day into our honeymoon and already it's a disaster" "Hey don't worry about it" He says. "Things will be better tomorrow" He kisses me on the top of the head. We take the elevator up to the 2/spanspan style="font: 8.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"supnd/sup/spanspan style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;" floor of the building, the see through elevator to be more specific, it takes my vertigo up another notch causing me to vomit once again. The rest of the Seafood stew, the two cocktails and a couple of Andes mints make a second appearance on Ted's really nice tuxedo. "You okay Mrs. Lady?" A Mexican boy, who appears to be no older than 6 asks. "Has she been drinking?" He asks Ted. I suppose he is not too young to understand the whole drunk thing. The man who I assume is his father gives him a slap on the back of his head "Dam nit El Burro. You know better than to go asking people questions like that" His father snaps. Seriously that's the kids name, translates to the donkey, which transfers to Jackass, which transfers to asshole which he kind of is. No wonder the kid acts out, but to be fair he wouldn't have any clue that I'm not drunk and that I really wish I was because then I'd actually be able to put a name behind what is happening to me. I shut my eyes because, looking through the elevator glass increases my vertigo a whole other notch, only to find that it has gone and made things even worse. I let out a single sob. "She's wasted all right" The father of El Burro says. "Don't worry" Ted says, stroking my hair once again. "We're almost to the hotel room" I have no idea why, but that elevator ride felt like it took forever. I suddenly realize what a terrible migraine I have, or maybe it is that I just suddenly developed a migraine. Either way, Ted carrying me to our room and just the echoing sound of him running down the hall with his especially loud shoes screaming the words "Help" and "Ayudar" (Which is a particular ugly word in my mind) Is just making it even worse. "Don't worry" He says, "We'll get help" That's just about the last thing I want, I don't want to ruin our honeymoon and more importantly, I really don't want to find out what is wrong with me. No one answers Ted's annoying screams, either everyone is asleep since it is probably now 2:00 in the morning, or maybe no one cares, or maybe no one else is staying on the 2/spanspan style="font: 8.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"supnd/sup/spanspan style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;" floor of the Hilton. Probably everyone who has gone to Mexico has rented other more authentic Mexican resorts. Someone actually does open the door and tells Ted to shut the fuck up. He then sees me "Passed out drunk huh?" He asks. Is he ever wrong? I am neither drunk or passed out. "Just give her a cold shower and she'll wake up" He says. "It's not what it looks like" Ted says. "I think she might be very sick" "Okay fine" The guy said. "She's sick, I'm sure it can wait till tomorrow, she probably just has a case of food poisoning or something, she'll be okay" "What gives you the idea she has food poisoning?" Ted asks, "Exactly what did I say to lead you to believe that?" "Who cares" The guy says, "But obviously it's all over your tux, your shoes and her dress" If by food poisoning he means Botulism, then maybe he's right. One of the Beta girls suffered from a case of Botulism and pretty much all of us "Greeks" found out about it. I'm not sure what they did about her Botulism, as a matter a fact I'm not sure what ever happened to that girl, but I kind of wish I did, because if I really do have Botulism, it would be nice to know what's going to happen to me and if I'm going to be okay or not. Maybe I shouldn't have ordered that horrible seafood stew, maybe all the shellfish and the entire lobster weren't cooked all the way. I realize at once that, that is most definitely not the case. I have been having problems since our wedding a week ago, with the whole ring incident and what not. "Do you really think she has food poisoning?" Ted asks. "Don't know" The guy says sounding more and more irritated by the second. "But can it please wait till tomorrow, my kids, wife and I have to get up early tomorrow morning, I promised them I'd show them the baby sea turtles. So please let me go to sleep and we'll discuss this tomorrow" "Fuck you!" Ted shouts giving him the middle finger. "Fuck everyone!" He shouts, more and more people open their doors, but Ted opens our door and slams it behind him, he then gently unzips my vomit stained black dress, and begins undressing me like I am 0 years old. "You'll feel better tomorrow" He tells me and I hope as hell he's right. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"As it turns out I do not feel better, as a matter a fact I might feel worse. I don't remember falling asleep, if I did at all, and if I had I don't remember dreaming anything, but I suppose I must have fallen asleep, but I definitely feel much worse. I woke up with my right arm attached (glued as a matter a fact) to my side soldier style, I am unable to move it because it feels heavy and when I try to move it, it snaps back with some kind of weird magnetic force. To make things worse, that is the arm that is dominant. Chills rush down my spine as I make a clumsy attempt to sit up. From the corner of my eye I see that Ted is already up and dressed. "No time to lay in bed all day" He says pulling off the covers. "We've got a big day ahead of us, we've got sight seeing, beach combing, snorkeling, making out in the waves" My stomach literally bounces. I am pretty much unable to do any of those things "I don't think so" I say. "What's wrong?" Ted asks, his favorite question once again. I almost tell him that I can't move my right arm, but my mouth feels like it's full of Adams brand natural peanut butter. I'm not sure if those two problems are related, or if I am just nervous as fuck. "Don't you feel well?" He asks "Don't you feel better from yesterday?" "I'm just tired" I lie. "Of course you are" Ted says, "You just woke up." He is unbelievably inconsiderate. "Can we just take it easy today?" I ask, I feel my voice break like I am going to start crying again. "We can do all that fun stuff tomorrow, I promise" "All right" Ted says. He doesn't sound super enthusiastic, but I can't say I blame him one little bit. I'm sure hanging out in the hotel room all day is the last thing he wants to do on his honeymoon our honeymoon that is. "I'm sorry this is such a horrible honeymoon" I say. "It's okay Brooke" He says irritably, I can tell from the look on his face that he is fucking disappointed, that his dream honeymoon didn't turn out the way he wanted it to. "You can do that stuff by yourself" I say. "Damnit Brooke" He snaps throwing back his head, "This is a honeymoon, we're supposed to do stuff together, look if you want to stay in the hotel room all day then fine. We'll just stay in the hotel room all day and do nothing, just like everyone else does on their honeymoon" I can't believe Ted can be so inconsiderately insensitive "Stop yelling at me." I cry "I'm really not feeling well" I say. "I know, I'm sorry" Ted says. "Would you like to cut the Honeymoon a day short?" He asks. I am worried that next he will say something like, "Do you not want to be married to me?" Thankfully he doesn't. "How do you not feel well?" He asks me. This is my chance to explain, but I don't because the last thing I want is for this honeymoon to become a medical emergency. "I just don't" I say. "Do you want to order room service then?" He asks. "Sure" I say apathetically. "Room service it is" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"strongChapter 2: Ted/strong/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"As I watch my wife lie on our bed on her stomach, typing on her I pad, I can't help noticing that there is an eerie sadness about her. A sadness I have never seen in her. As a matter a fact a sadness I haven't seen in anyone, I can't explain it. She seems very listless as she scrolls down the computer screen, it appears that she is looking at TWOP, for some reason she really likes reading summaries about the 10th season of Grey's Anatomy, and for some reason it really offends her that Grey's Anatomy hasn't just ended already. She does all this with her left hand, and I wonder what the hell is wrong with her right hand. It hangs limply to her waste. She is real quiet. She doesn't even make a peep, she doesn't once say the word peep, but on the other hand why would she? She seems like she is hiding something. I however know all too well that she is not hiding anything. Ever since are wedding I've been able to pick up on signs of not okayness from her. I've been able to pick up on her not okaydar. It started with the rings. She had great difficulty slipping it on my finger, as a matter a fact she just had difficulty handling it in general, she dropped it several times and my 7 year old 2nd cousin twice removed the ring barer kept having to pick it up. I could tell he found that amusing, maybe even hilarious and I wanted to kick him in the balls for that. I'm sure it didn't occur to him how much she was struggling. But it definitely occurred to me It was like she had a severe case of butterfingers all of a sudden, and I do not mean the candy bar. When she was finally able to get a firm hold of the ring and slip it on my finger she seemed to have even more trouble, she couldn't even seem to figure out which finger was the ring finger. She then became so upset that she took off to the bathroom and cried. It ended up being my 2nd cousin twice removed who put the ring on my finger. It was so pathetic and lame, but hey at least I got a ring. During our dance together, she stumbled, fell and stepped on my feet a lot. I figured she was drunk or something, but that didn't seem to suffice anything. Brooke was a sorority girl for gods sake. Not saying that all sorority girls are drunk/ and or high all the time, every second of their lives, that is absolutely not the case, but they are big on partying just like us frat boys. They are as a matter a fact as big of drinker's as us Frat boys are of druggies. Brooke has gotten so used to drinking, that she's built up a tolerance for it. I've seen her drink a fish bowl of tequila, plus a number of shots, and a couple beers, and ended up being only a little bit tipsy. That night however, she only drank one cup of wine at dinner. There was an open bar and everything, but it wasn't supposed to open until midnight or something. But the way she was dancing and tripping over her dress and falling splat on her face a couple of times, that was just plain unusual, I could have sworn that she was drunk. Maybe she wasn't as tolerant to wine as she was to other alcohol. Or else maybe something else was going on. Something was very wrong. It was really sad watching her struggle so much. She continued tripping over her dress and just stepping on her shoes wrong after the dance as well, over night she had become a total klutz somehow. She had lost all of her coordination. And she had been so coordinated before at sports like ultimate frisbee, lacross and powderpuff football. I kept worrying that she might hurt herself really badly every time she fell down visions of broken bones danced around in my head like sugar plumbs (Sorry about sounding all gay and retarded) She also bumped into people a lot, so I worried she might hurt someone else as well. At one point she crashed right into Pete, and that was really awkward, seeing all the history between the three of us, we kind of had a triangle thing going on, like we were Edward, Bella and Jacob (Gay and retarded as well) "Brooke you okay?" He asked, he then firmly grabbed her by the shoulders. I was relieved that that was as far as they went, but Pete's a good guy, he would know better than to try something with her at our wedding. "Yeah I just had a little clumsy moment" She said sitting down next to Pete. She then laughed with her loud fake laugh like it was no big deal. I don't usually say things like this, but it really broke my heart, as I watched her laughter turn to tears. I sat down next to her, and I guess Pete took that as an excuse to leave and flirt with Brittany. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her quivering body her black mascara was running down her cheeks, making her look like one of those weird goth chicks. "I'm so sorry Ted" She moaned. I hug her close to my body. "Hey no worries I say" That was a complete lie, there were all kinds of worries. Brooke was just being so UnBrookelike on so many levels. "Should we just go home?" She asked wiping the mascara from her cheeks. It looked even worse after she did that, making her look even more like a weird Goth teenager who liked to slit it's wrist on a daily basis. I kissed her on the top of the head. "You sure you don't want to stay?" I couldn't have cared less about staying, and watching Whitney and Pete's speeches about us, and then having to hear from Brooke's parents or from her bitchy anal retentive stuck in the mud older sister Brandy or my mom and dad, and I especially do not want to stay for the slide show, but It really wouldn't be a wedding without the bride and groom. "Don't worry" I said, "You just have to sit for the rest of this thing" "I'm embarrassed god damnit" She said folding her arms across her chest. Her voice breaks again. "And I want to go home" I suddenly realized that I was starting to tear up as well. "This isn't going to take that long" I lied, usually weddings take forever, Brandy was probably going to go on and on for a couple of hours with her drudgerous monotonus voice, as she tends to do. She had a job as a 5th grade teacher and boy did I feel sorry for those poor kids. Brandy is 3 years 6 months and one day older than Brooke and the two of them are as different as night and day. Brooke has beautiful honey blonde colored hair that is very wavy, Brandy's hair is blonde too, but it's more of a bland dishwater blonde and it is very streight. Brooke is very bubbly and was part of a sorority, Brandy was a very serious student who kept to her dorm room in college studying. While Brooke stayed up till 4 in the morning partying, Brandy stayed up till 4 in the morning with her nose in a text book. Anyway you get the picture, seeing the two of them together, it is shocking that they were raised under the same roof. "Will Brandy Shy please come talk about the bride?" The priest asked. Brandy very blandly shuffled her feet over to the podium. "First of all, I'd like to congratulate my baby sister Brookie Monster and her amazing high school sweetheart Teddy Bear" She says the whole thing rolling her eyes, I'm sure that was meant to be cute or something along those lines, or maybe even funny, but It's Brandy we're talking about. She's as dull as dirt except that would be an insult to dirt because it has far more personality, and Brookie Monster and Teddy Bear cute and funny? It's really not. The most she got for that piece of crap were a couple of polite giggles from the little kids in the audience, and a smirk of her own. "Tough crowd we're having today" She said with that annoying drawl. She's always kind of reminded me of a snail how slowly she talks, she once again rolled her eyes with that too cool for school attitude she's always been trying out. She rolled her eyes again, "As some of you might already know, I just got married myself a month ago to my beautiful girlfriend of six years, Tequila Sunrise, stand up for the crowd Tequila" A punkish looking girl with short spiky pink hair, a bunch of tattoo's, piercings and horn rimed glasses stood up in the crowd flipping both the middle fingers and wagging her tongue. Where the hell did Brandy find this girl? I wonder to myself, Brandy is so serious and conservative, she is practically like a puritan/pilgrim/quaker. "Of course Tequila Sunrise isn't her real name" Brandy says rolling her eyes again, "Her real name is Susan Anderson, she just calls herself Tequila to be cheeky, because Brandy and Tequila get it?" I swear, Brandy always sounds like she's on tranquilizers and not in the fun chilax sort of way. I swear Brandy is never on any kind of tranquilizers, she's like the most sober person I know, which is really ironic seeing that her name is Brandy. The poor audience appeared really bored. I pretty much spaced out the whole thing, a bunch of stories of how we first met blah blah blah, prom royalty blah blah blah, Stories that make her sound like she should get a big sister of the decade award, taught Brooke how to swim, ride a bike, ice skate etc. She then said something at the end that really jolted me out of my semi coma. "If their's anything I know about my little sis" She drawls on, "It's her tendencies towards passive aggression. We all saw her on the dance floor, the way she was tripping and stepping on Ted's feet, and not to mention the fact that she kept dropping the ring and had to have Ted's 2nd cousin twice removed figure it out and the fact that she took off to the bathroom crying during I do's. If you didn't recognize the signs then, hopefully you'll recognize them now. She doesn't want to marry you Theodor Sanders." She clicks her tongue. My brain suddenly goes all foggy. I did think that maybe that was a possibility, I did recognize those signs, but I decided to push them all to the back of my head. Tears form in my eyes. "I have to say baby sis. I'm really disappointed in you,  
If you didn't want to marry the guy then why did you say yes when he proposed to you Troll? And also Brooke, why didn't you make me the maid of honor? You were the maid of honor at my wedding as you very well remember. The least you could have done was make me a brides maid, but I take it your Sorority sisters are important than your actual biological blood sister, who grew up under the same roof as you. I have to say this is the worst wedding I've ever gone to, and now that I'm done with this speech, Tequila and I can get the hell out of here" "Fuck yeah!" Tequila shouts, once again giving us both the finger. "Damn Brooke you okay?" Scoonie asked giving her a squeeze on the shoulder. He doesn't even bother asking me if I'm okay that fucking asshole, but I suppose It wasn't MY sister who ripped me apart, but doesn't it count that she is my sister in law? "She just ripped you the fuck apart" Brooke did not answer, she just started blinking several times in slow motion. My Mom made the next speech, but I was so shook up from Brandy's speech that I was unable to pay attention. I stared over at Brooke, her cheeks appeared wet and very flushed, she looked just as shook up as I felt or maybe even more. I wasn't quite sure which of us deserved to be more shook up. We had to stay for the cutting of the wedding cake, because we were the bride and groom and everything and let's just say that I wish I hadn't. We sliced the cake and fed it to each other the corny way you're supposed to at a wedding, Brooke suddenly went pale and started coughing. "Brooke are you okay?" Her friend Brittany called out from the audience. I realized shortly that she was choking on her wedding cake. "Anybody know the heimlich manouver?" I asked. Way to make it all about her once again. I really couldn't say I felt sorry for her, even when her face was turning all red and purple and she is struggling with every breath she took. "I got her" Garf announced. He then rushed up to Brooke and gave her chest compressions. A piece of drenched wedding cake came flying out of her mouth. She began coughing uncontrollably. "You okay girl?" Garf asked. She put her hand to her mouth, collapsed to the ground and began bawling once again. She was being a great example of how people become overly emotional wrecks at their weddings. I had no sympathy for her whatsoever. "Should we just go?" I snapped. We didn't say a word to each other in the car. Neither of us said a word until we finally pulled up to the driveway. "Is it true?" I asked her. "Is what true?" She asked, her voice full of nervousness. "What Brandy said" I snapped, "Do you not want to be with me? Is that why you kept messing things up, is that why you kept falling down and stepping on my feet, is that why you kept dropping the ring? Is that why you choked on the wedding cake" She stared off at the distance. not looking at me, her face was dark but that was to be expected in the dark car. It was once again wet, she'd been crying obviously because she has been caught being a bitch. "Damn it Brooke" I snap, "Don't you have anything to say about this?" Anything at all. She continued staring at the distance, big fat tears ran down her cheeks and her mascara continued to run. Despite everything she's put me through, I really do think she's a beautiful cryer, if it wasn't for all the mascara. She then let's out a single sob. "It's not like that Teddy" She said, she hasn't called me Teddy in years, as a matter a fact, nobody has, I stopped being Teddy as soon as I graduated college and started a new life. I ignored the whole Teddy thing. "Oh really?" I snapped, "Then what's it like?" I asked throwing back my head in exasperation. "I'm just kind of clumsy" She said trying to laugh through her tears. "God Damn it Brooke you are not!" I snapped, "You're good at ultimate frisbee, powderpuff football, gymnastics" Brooke burst into fresh tears. "Stop yelling at me" She cried. "Stop yelling nice things" I was not yelling at her for putting herself down or whatever she thought. I was plainly and simply yelling at her for ruining our god damn wedding, for making a fool out of herself and a bigger fool out of me possibly. "I'm not yelling nice things at you god damnit" I snapped, "And what was the deal with you throwing yourself at Pete?" "I did not throw myself at Pete" Brooke sobbed "It was an honest mistake" "Was it an honest mistake when you cried when I proposed to you?" "You were drunk" Brooke sobbed bitterly. "You just broke up with Vychtouriyah, I was your fucking rebound" "Is that how you see this?" I asked my voice had gone from angry to hurt. "But then what about when I proposed to you for real?" I asked. "Those were happy tears" She said. "Never mind that" I snapped, going back to angry in an instant "You said yes! You obviously didn't want to, but you fucking said yes! Why did you?" Brooke doesn't say anything "God damnit Brooke!" I snapped, I slammed the door and left her in the front seat bawling like an idiot. I decided that even though it was our first night officially together, I was already wanting to get as far away from her as humanly possible. I called the first person I think of and for some reason that person is Brandy, the person who was pretty much 2nd hand in ruining our wedding. The phone rang a couple of times and not Brandy but Taquilla answered. "Who might this be?" She asks, she has a huge speech impediment due to multiple tongue and mouth peircings, "It's Ted" I said. "Brandy" She called out, "Ted's on the phone" Brandy answered right away. "What's up?" She asked. "It's a disaster, it's all a fucking disaster, I don't even want to be in the same room as Brooke. Could I maybe crash at your place?" Brandy rolled her eyes, at least I'm assumed she did, seeing that is a very common Brandy activity. "I knew this was coming" She said in her cool was voice. "You're welcome to crash at our place any time. Stay as long as you'd like, we're renting the Super 8 Motel, but we have to leave in a couple of days, so 2 days would be the limit" "Don't worry" I said, "Hopefully it will just be for a couple of nights, I know the two of you have a life and everything" "Mi Casa es Zu Casa" She says with that same old drawl. "Hopefully not for long" I said, "Hopefully this will blow over" "See ya soon" Brandy drawls. I angrily stomped out to the car. My wife was still bawling like an idiot in the passenger's seat. "Get out!" I snapped. She doesn't budge. She just rocked back in fourth crying like a fucking idiot. "GET OUT OF THE CAR!" I snapped again "Get the fuck out you wedding ruining whore!" That only caused her to cry even harder, which I did not need at all. The car was echoing with her loud obnoxious tears. When she continued not to budge, I finally grabbed her by the frilly sleeve of her white wedding dress, and yanked her out of the car. I was angry, but I really hoped I didn't hurt her. I then got in the car and slammed the door. She once again tripped over her dress. I rolled down the window. "I don't feel sorry for you!" I snapped. I drove away and watched her continue bawling on our lawn. I really didn't feel sorry for her /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Taquilla opened the door It is the first time I noticed how freakishly tall she is, she towered over Brandy who already towered over me. "Brandy your guest's here" She announced. Brandy woodenly came to the door, she was dressed in her pajama's and had a toothbrush in her mouth. God damnit I hate it when people brush their teeth in the living room, it's so fucking rude and not to mention gross. "You can have the guest bed" Brandy said, with her mouth full of toothpaste. She spat into a tiny basin she was carrying around. Ga-ross! "I love my little sis" She said, "But we all have to admit, she can be a fucking bitch when she really wants to be." "Yeah" I said. "I couldn't agree with you more. You girls got any Taquilla and Brandy?" I asked cheekily. "Heh!" Taquilla says tagging on the fake laugh. "We get that question all the fucking time. No, we don't have any of that, I'm in alcoholics annonymus and Brandy here? She's just against it." I nodded. "You seem to be in a bad mood" She said, quite observant that Taquilla. "Maybe this will help you feel better" She said logging into Youtube. "Oh wow!" she squealed. "5 comments already on this thing I just posted. "What did you just post?" I asked leaning in closer to the computer. Taquilla presses play. The screen says the word, "Brooke Shy's best crying scenes at her wedding" Brooke Shy, she couldn't have bothered to refer to her as Brooke Sanders. Ouch. Major ouch. The song "Stop Crying Your Heart Out!" By Oasis blared in the background.'- I swear that's one of the most over used songs ever in a music video, at least 50 billion videos have that stupid song in them. Well now 50 billion and one. It was pretty inaccurate since a lot of the scenes in the video didn't involve her crying, just of her feeling down in the dumps or whatever. The saddest thing about the whole thing, was I didn't even care that Taquilla made that video that people online might actually look at. It served Brooke right. It served that bitchy traitor right. "Would you like to comment?" She asked. I really wanted to say something like "Fuck you Brooke" But for some reason I didn't have the nerve to post it. Instead I posted, "Where did you find all those clips?" Instead of writing a comment, she answered for me in person. "There's more" She said. She then typed in the name of another Youtube video. As it turned out, she got our whole entire wedding on tape, even the parts that I assumed she wasn't there for, since I had thought she and Brandy left after Brandy's speech. She went back and rewinds the part with Brooke choking on her wedding cake over and over. "How did you get this?" I asked. "We were in the balcony the whole time" Taquilla said. My mouth dropped open and I was at a loss for words/span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;" After staying a two and a half nights with Brandy and Taquilla, things smoothed themselves over eventually. It took a really long time, but thankfully we didn't book our honeymoon until a couple of weeks after the wedding. So now two weeks and a three days later, we are on our honey moon, and it is just as much of a disaster as our wedding, or maybe even more of a disaster. I am bored as fuck staring up at the ceiling tossing a blue ball in my hands. Brooke continues staring at the computer and looking very withdrawn and sad, maybe a cross between bummed and wistful would be the best way to describe it. "Brooke could I ask you a question?" I ask. "Sure" She says sullenly. "Are we okay?" I ask. "We're fine" Brooke says, listlessly staring at the computer. "Why wouldn't we be?" She asks still sad as ever. "Last night?" I say, "What was going on? Were you really feeling sick, or were you being passive aggressive like you were at the wedding? Is it that you don't want to be with me?" I don't know why I am hurt instead of angry this time, maybe it's because I got it all out of my system the day of the wedding. Brooke swallows hard. "I don't really want to talk about it" She says. The way she says everything with a great deal of sadness, kind of makes me wonder if maybe there really is something going on, something more then just marriage guilt. Maybe what happened last night, maybe something really was wrong with her. "About what?" I ask. She stares off into the distance with that same sad expression. I wish I could pin point this sadness. "Just it" She says, with that strange sadness. It is driving me crazy. "Do you want to go home?" I ask her. "Should we just cut this trip short?" "Yes" She says woodenly. I swear she sounds a lot like her sister Brandy, and that was something I never thought possible. Not even for a second. I drive a sad Brooke to the airport, she stares ahead of her with a very empty look in her eyes. Why is she so sad? I can't help wondering to myself. I wonder if maybe there is some connection to what happened yesterday. Maybe she really is sick. Maybe she has something terribly wrong with her. Or maybe it's me. Maybe now she's just starting to realize, that she's tied down to someone, maybe she's just sad that she's no longer free. Maybe this just isn't what she wanted for herself, maybe I should have taken her crying about my proposal as some kind of sign. Maybe all she has wrong with her is a severe case of nerves and that's it. We don't say a word to each other. What is there to say? I've already said everything I needed to say to her. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;""When's your next flight to Los Angeles?" I ask, as soon as we get there. "Next flight is at 2:47" God damnit what an inconvenient time. It is only 10:00, I guess we're going to be spending 4 hours and 47 minutes of our honeymoon in the airport in Mexico. FUCK! Just fuck. I really want to strangle Brooke right now, her falling down spells are getting worse by the second, as are her inability to hold things, she drops her luggage at least 20 times. She is so vulnerable and way too vulnerable right now for me to do such a thing. And it's kind of hard for me to strangle someone who I'm kind of worried about. /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"strongChapter 3: Brooke /strong/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"We say nothing to each other at the airport, not a single word. Ted listlessly flips through a people magazine. He is pissed, I can just tell, and why shouldn't he be, we were supposed to be on our honey moon for three days, and all we got out of it was one really crappy day, and one really boring day cut short. He does not get to do what he came here to do. We did not get to go sight seeing, or make out in the waves, or go snorkeling. I feel terrible for ruining honeymoon What had happened. I had been doing so well since our wedding. No falling spells or any of that jazz. I thought for sure it was just nerves, but who get's nervous on their honeymoon. Honeymoon's are meant for relaxing. Why couldn't I have just waited to have a bad case of nerves when we got home, the wedding went terribly, Ted had to stay a couple of nights with Brandy and Taquilla which sounds like he got drunk at the bar for two nights straight, but really he didn't get a drop of alcohol. When he got home, I knew he was still angry, apparently two nights didn't resolve anything. He angrily grabbed me by the arm. "C'mon Brooke!" He snapped, "We're going to couple's therapy. Apparently he had made an appointment during the time he was spending with Brandy and Taquilla. "What already?" I asked. It was pretty pathetic, we had only been a couple for two days and already we were about to go to couple's therapy. He grabbed me by the arm. "C'mon let's go" He says. There was no talking in the car. It seemed like it took hours before we pulled up to a small building. I somehow managed to get out of the car and walk over to the building without having another "clumsy moment" and was glad I didn't because, Ted would have had no sympathy or time for that. "Theodor and Brooke Sanders" The woman who I assumed must have been the therapist said sticking her head out . "My name is Evangeline" she said holding out her hand. She was I swear, one of the ugliest women I've ever seen, with her huge glasses, mousey brown pixie, her eyes too close together and her tiny button nose which is way too far away from her mouth which was hung open like she was some kind of a mouth breather, her teeth were crooked to make everything worse. She was wearing heavy perfume that made me want to either throw up or keel over. "Come on in you two" She said. "May I offer you two a cup of tea?" She asked. "Sure" I said. "What about you?" She asked my husband. "Coffee" He said "Oh I'm sorry" She said, with her annoyingly soothing voice, the kind of voice that would be relaxing at a spa, but at a therapists office is just infuriating. "Let's try this again" Evangeline said condescendingly" "Are you kidding me?" He snaps, Evangeline clears his throat "What kind of tea do you want?" She asked again, "CO'FEE!" He said sounding it out as if she was mentally retarded or something, which I kind of wondered if she might have been. She did kind of look it. "I don't do coffee," she said. Ted looked even more infuriated then he had when we came in. "We have black tea" She said, "Fine!" Ted snaps. "Black tea it is" "What kind of tea would you like?" She asked me. "Um, I'll have vanilla" I said. She then disappeared into the kitchen area of the building, and Ted and I were left alone in angry silence. She returned in what seems like hours. "Here you are" She said, handing us our tea. "Black for Ted, and Vanilla Black for you" My hands suddenly go limp again, the way they had at the wedding when I kept dropping the ring. I dropped the scorching hot tea and it spilled all over my lap "Oh my gosh are you all right?" Evangeline asks. She immediately handed me some tissues. "Clumsy moment" I said giggling nervously. Ted face palmed and threw his head back in exasperation. "What are you feeling right now!" Evangeline asked Ted. "Well obviously exasperated!" He snaps. "And why is that?" She asked. "Because!" Ted snapped, "I'm sick and tired of her using that for an excuse all the time. "Clumsy Moment!" He said that part mockingly in my voice. I must have looked pretty offended because Evangeline said "I can really tell from the look on your face that you didn't like that, it hurt your feelings didn't it, how did it make you feel. Why don't you share some feeling words about it?" "Icky" I said. She raised one eyebrow at me. "And kind of offended." Evangeline took out a yellow pad of lined paper. "I guess we're going to have a lot to talk about this session" She said, "How long have you two been married? I'm guessing at least two years" "Try two days" Ted snapped. "We're newly weds" Evangeline clicked her tongue, she sure was condescending. "How can you two be having such problems already?" She asked. "Unless you had problems at your wedding" "That's exactly it!" Ted snapped. Evangeline took off her glasses. "Tell me about your wedding!" She said, folding her arms across her lap. "Okay gladly" Ted said. "As Julie Andrews said in that really gay musical of hers let's start at the very beginning" He cracked his knuckles. I hate it when he does that, but maybe that was somehow supposed to make up for that Sound of Music reference, since cracking one's knuckles seems like a very manly activity at least to me. "I guess I'll start with my proposal to her." "What about it?" Evangeline asked. "She cried" Ted said disgustedly. "I see" Evangeline says. "And I don't mean in a good way. She did not cry because she was happy or any of that shit. She didn't even give me a yes or no answer, she just plain cried." "You were fucking drunk" I snapped, "And you just broke up with that other girl, Vic-Whore-ia or what ever her name is. I was your rebound, and you threw up you fucking threw up right after you proposed to me." I couldn't help repeating what I said after our wedding word for word. "Vychtouryah" He snaps, "Her name was Vychtouryah you fucking bitch." "Let's not get angry?" Evangeline said calmly. "Why not get angry, this is fucking marriage therapy, aren't you supposed to get angry at marriage therapy, isn't that kind of the whole point?" Evangeline just sat there with her hands on her lap. "It's not good to be so angry, it's good to talk it out rationally" She says. She then turned to me. "Brooke, why did you get his girlfriends name wrong when you knew very well that was not her name?" "Because I fucking hate her!" I snapped crossing my arms tightly across my chest sticking out my bottom lip in a pouting motion. "I hate to say this Brooke, but calling her Vic-Whore-ia, sounded a little bitchy don't you think? And a little bit judgmental considering you never met the girl, she could very well be a virgin and not a whore at all, and she may also be a very nice girl." "She's not!" Ted interjected. "She's not a nice girl or a virgin." "ANY WAY!" I said condescendingly. "I was Vychtourya's rebound. Her fucking rebound. As soon as he broke up with her, he was down on his knees proposing to me, It was probably the same ring he used to prepose to that fucking bitch. Of course I cried" I said. "Okay fine" Ted says tossing his arms up in the air angrily, "It was the same ring! Fine that was an assholish dick move on my part. I apologize" Evangeline nods woodenly. "That does not sound like a real apology" Evangeline said. "You know very well that you should never apologize unless you really are sorry" "Good to know!" Ted snapped. "Because I sure as Hell am not really sorry!" Evangeline sat there patiently. "But then I proposed to her about five weeks later, and god damnit I did buy a new ring and a god damn expensive one at that" Ted said. His teeth were grit with anger. "And?" Evangeline asks putting on her glasses, "She said YES!" He snapped. Evangeline took off her glasses once again in order to blink her eyes a couple of times, she was purely confused. "The problem was. She obviously didn't want to get married" "Why do you say that?" Evangeline asked. "She basically ruined our wedding. That fucking whore" He said. I suddenly felt like I am not a part of this conversation. For all I was concerned I was no longer in the room, she only wanted to talk to Ted. "Hold on a second Ted" She said at one point. She took off her glasses. So annoying how she kept taking her glasses off and putting them back on. "Brooke sweetie, are you okay?" She asked me. "Yeah why?" I asked startled "Yes why?" Ted repeated. "I mean with your husband tearing you apart and everything!" Ted throws his head back in exasperation once again. "God why is it that people are always taking Brooke's side? And when I say Brooke's side I don't mean the fancy chocolates." Evangeline blinked her eyes once again and took off her glasses, and I didn't blame her for a second, that was fucking obscure of Ted. "I really don't understand what chocolates have to do with anything!" She said. "Forget it!" He snapped. She then turned to me. "How are you feeling about all of this?" She asked. I really did not know what to say. What I really wanted to talk about is, what happened to me at the wedding and how none of it was my fault, and that I seriously thought I was sick, but I didn't want Ted to worry about me, if he worries about me, he might want me to go to the hospital and that might ruin things even more. If he found out that I was sick then he'd feel guilty and I did not want that, nor did I want to ruin our honeymoon, which was in a couple of weeks so I assumed we'd be over it by then. "Everything's fine" I lied, I then smiled even though on the inside, I felt sad. "Do you feel that you ruined the wedding?" Evangeline asked. Tears weld up in my eyes. All I can do is nod my head. It was all I could do to not cry at therapy. "I really don't want to talk about it" I said. "I Don't think you understand the point of therapy" She said to me, taking off her glasses again. She just shouldn't wear glasses if she can't decide whether or not to keep them on or not. "When you go to therapy you're supposed to talk about your problems" "Well" I said, staring at her. "I didn't want to go to therapy in the first place FYI. I didn't even get a say in it in the first place" I snapped, "Ted just dragged me and said 'C'mon we're going to couple's therapy. We're not even married and already he's sending me to couple's therapy, he doesn't even trust us to work it out on our own" "How can we work anything out?" Ted snapped, "You don't even want to talk about it, you want to pretend it didn't happen, well guess what? If that's how it is, this marriage is never going to work." "Ted" Evangeline said, "Why don't you try using some feeling words with Brooke. Just yelling at her like that, is going over her head, it's not the way we handle things at couple's therapy. Why don't you say something like, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but that really hurt your feelings the way you acted at our wedding" "Wait a sec" Ted snapped, "I'm supposed to say, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you hurt my feelings?" Evangeline just stared at us with her mouth open, breathing through her mouth. "How in the world is that affective?" Ted snapped. Evangeline puts her glasses back on. "Never mind that" Evangeline says, clearly stating that Ted has won. "Tell me more about your wedding" She said. "What exactly did she do? I know your pissed off, but what exactly did she do that pissed you off so much? Besides the crying thing when you proposed to her drunk" Ted put his finger to his chin, and put on his thinking face. "Where do I start?" He asked. "Well first of all she had a lot of trouble dealing with putting on my ring. I've gone to a lot of weddings, and never have I seen anyone have that much trouble with that." "I'm just clumsy" I said staring down at the floor. "Shut up Brooke!" Ted snapped. "Why did you tell her to shut up just now?" Evangeline asked, purely confused. "Did you mean shut up as in oh my god? Or did you really want her to shut up. I can understand that your pissed about how she behaved at the wedding, but why did you tell her to shut up just now? What did she say that deserved that response?" Ted continued to look very angry. He face palmed once again. "I'm just clumsy, I just had a clumsy moment. That's just her go to excuse for every thing these days, every time she falls or drops something or whatever, or spills vanilla black tea in her lap. Let me tell you something. I've known Brooke since high school okay? She was on the powderpuff football team and the gymnastics team, not to mention she's always been killer at ultimate frisbee." "What's your point?" Evangeline asked, blinking her eyes in confusion once again. Ted gave her an ultra condescending look. "Well DUH!" He said, "My point is that she's not clumsy. She's very co ordinated, but you wouldn't have known that from the way she dancing during the bride and grooms dance." "Oh dear" Evangeline said, "What happened?" I couldn't help noticing that Ted was tearing up a tiny bit. He is so embarrassed about crying in front of people. The last time I saw him cry in public was when he was shit drunk. "Let's just say she had a bunch of clumsy moments. I know that you're going to probably ask if she was drunk, but I'll tell you first hand that she absolutely was not. That was way before the bar opened, she didn't have anything to drink at dinner. She was fucking sober." "What do you think was going on?" Evangeline asked. "You really want to know what I think?" Ted asked, his voice sounded like a combination of worry and anger. "I think she was trying to sabotage our wedding" He snapped, going back to just pure angry. "Is she usually that kind of person?" She asked. "Is that something she'd do?" "Not usually!" Ted snapped, folding his hands in her lap, "But it was something she did" Evangeline turned to me. "Is that true Brooke?" She asked me. I just stared at the ground and shrugged. "I don't really want to talk about it" I said again, sounding like a broken record player I assume. "So were you or were you not trying to sabotage your wedding" "YES!" Ted answered. "I was asking Brooke" Evangeline said. "Well obviously she's not talking" He snapped. "She has nothing to say about it, but I sure as hell do" "Well you better make it quick" Evangeline says, "Time is running up" "I think I've said all I need to say" Ted said. Evangeline looks down at her watch. "Well what do you know, time's up, better get going" She says flapping her hands in a pushing moment. "Andoiulee, Andoiulee!" God there is just something about how she said that, that really bugged the shit out of me. Ted and I sat in silence for the first couple of blocks. I was the first one to break the silence. "Andoiulee, Andoiulee!" I say mimicking Evangeline angrily. Ted rolled his eyes. "I really don't understand what chocolates have to do with anything" He replied, also mimicking the therapist. I was shocked, I had expected him to get mad at me, but instead miraculously, he was angrier at the therapist. I laugh nervously. "I don't want to hurt your feelings but you really hurt my feelings at the wedding" I said nervously. Ted laughed grudgingly. "How about the way she kept taking her glasses off and putting them back on? What the fuck was up with that?" He asked. "Did you notice how tiny her nose was?" I asked, "And how far her mouth was from her nose" Ted nodded. "I did notice, and what about the fact that she didn't do coffee" He cleared his throat. "Let's try this again. What kind of Tea do you want?" I laughed again and that time it wasn't so strained. We were comfortable again even if our bond was based on making fun of poor old ugly Evangeline. "I can really tell from the look on your face that you didn't like that, it hurt your feelings didn't it, how did it make you feel. Why don't you share some feeling words about it?" I said. Ted laughed again. I was really starting to miss that laugh of his "I hate to say this Brooke, but calling her Vic-Whore-ia, sounded a little bitchy don't you think?" Ted replied. Before I knew it, we were laughing our heads off, I started to get nervous that after we finished making fun of Evangeline, we would go back to not talking to each other. We pulled up to our driveway, and for some reason I thought for sure, we'd go back to hating each other. I knew for a fact that our mutual hatred for Evangeline was not going to fix our already strained marriage. Shockingly Ted took my hand. "C'mon Brooke" He said, "Let's have some make up sex" After that things were back to normal, it was a start to a really good relationship, at least that's what I thought. Also I was able to keep the strange symptoms of clumsiness at bay, maybe it was just nerves all along. But then once we got to Mexico, the symptoms of clumsiness showed their hideous faces once again./span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"So now, here's what we got. A very short and pathetic excuse for a don't talk on the plane. Ted and I just sit in silence. I have the aisle seat and am staring out the window looking at nothing. I really wish I could tell my husband how I'm really feeling, but every time I try to, my throat feels all closed, and my body get's all sweaty. Ted appears to be asleep with his earbuds placed in each ear and his Ipod on his lap. He is still very much pissed. My brain feels like it is in a foggy mist once again, and I do not like it. I would like it much better if it was to be expected, if I knew what was causing it, if it were drug related but I don't know what is causing it, and it is not drug related. My entire body breaks into a cold sweat but at the same time a hot sweat. I do not realize it yet, but I am crying. I mean really letting it out crying, A full body cry. I am not crying silently, loud deep sobs cause my entire body to shake uncontrollably. I realize I have woken Ted up. He groans loudly. "I'm sorry to wake you" I sob. "You all right?" He asks me. Surprisingly he is not super pissed. As a matter a fact not pissed at all. Worried "No!" I sob. "I don't feel well, I want to get off" "Is everything all right?" One of the stewardess asks. "Apparently not" Ted says. My head feels more foggy and misty by the second, my hands start feeling like balloons again, but this time not inflated balloons, this time more like deflated balloons. "What's the matter with you babe?" Ted asks. "I don't know!" I moan. Tears stream down my cheeks. The stewardess stays by my side. A woman from across the Aisle stands up. "She can have one of my Sonata's" She says. "No!" Ted snaps, "There will be no sedating my wife." "It's a short lasting drug, it should wear off in an hour and a half" The woman says, "The flight is a couple hours" "Do you have anything stronger?" Ted asks, I don't understand him, one minute he's telling the strange woman not to sedate me, and the next he's begging her to give me something stronger. "I do have a couple of Xanex" The woman says, "Is she a first time flyer?" She asks Ted, "I mean like no offense or anything" "No" Ted says, "She's flown before many of times." He then turns to me. "What's going on?" He asks me. "What's wrong?" Tears continue streaming down my cheeks. "Take this" the woman says, handing me a white pill. I pop it in my mouth and drink the cup of cranberry juice cocktail. "Atta girl" She says."Now just take some deep breaths" She tells me. I try taking a single deep breath, but I feel like there is no air in my lungs, my chest feels tight. "I can't breathe" I complain. "You can" She says, "You're okay, you're just having an anxiety attack" She pats my hand. "I don't think she's having an anxiety attack" Ted says. "Brooke what's wrong babe?" He asks me. My sweater suddenly feels too itchy, and maybe a little too tight. "Are you all right dear?" The lady who gave me a xanex asks me. "I can't breathe" I moan once again. /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"strongChapter 4: Ted/strong/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"I stare at my wife, her face is turning all purple and blue. Now I am in full panic mode. "What's wrong babe?" I ask jostling her. I feel a fear like no other fear I have ever felt. My seat is starting to feel very itchy. Unfortunately I am unable to leave my seat because, there is turbulence and because I have a window and it's not so easy walking over her when she can't seem to move. She has her mouth and her eyes open and looks like a dead fish. "Brooke come on!" I say, giving her chest compressions "Breathe. Brooke breathe!" along with the turbulence, Brooke's condition get's continuously worse. Her arms lay limply at her side. "Breathe!" I shout again. "HELP!" I shout to no one in particular. "Somebody HELP!" I wake up a whole bunch of people. "Is there a doctor?" No one answers. I don't care about the fucking turbulence, I am not about to watch my wife die, on the airplane with out any known cause. "Somebody HELP!" I shout again. Tears roll down my cheeks and before I know it I am bawling. I am relieved to see that she is making progress, very little progress but progress none the less. She is breathing small shallow breaths, but at least she is breathing at all, her eyes are now closed instead of being open like a creepy dead fish. Apparently the Xanex has kicked in. The turbulence stops. For a split second I am convinced that she is okay. Her breathing is almost back to normal, but then seconds later, she is barely breathing at all. I shake her. "Brooke!" I shout. Tears stream down my cheeks, I am usually too proud to cry in public, but this is not one of those situations. "Excuse me" A bland looking man in a suit and tie says, "Were you the one who was just screaming for a doctor?" "Oh my god!" I say, more tears rush down my cheeks. Tears of relief this time. "Are you a doctor?" God what a stupid question, I'm sure he wouldn't be coming over to ask us if we needed a doctor, if he wasn't a doctor himself, or maybe he wasn't maybe he's just kind of an idiot or something. "I am" He says, "I'm actually going to a conference in Los Angeles" Man do I ever not care. "I didn't ask!" I snap not trying to sound like a complete asshole, I just couldn't possibly be more interested in his conference in Los Angeles. But I hope I didn't sound like a complete asshole, since he is going out of his way to help me. "I'm sorry" I apologize (Duh! I apologized) "What's going on here?" The doctor asks. "I don't know" I cry, "I'm really scared." I begin hyperventilating, "It's my wife" I say, "She's sick. I think" He then pulls out his medical bag. He pulls out a tiny flashlight, pulls open her eyelid and begins shining it in her eye. "Her pupils look fine" He observes, which is weird because she was just given a xanex. Oh well maybe xanex doesn't cause the pupils to dilate, some sedatives don't after all. He then checks her pulse. "Weak" He says. "What do you think is wrong with her?" I ask, "All I can say right now is, her pulse is weak and she's very lethargic" He then pulls out his stethoscope and places it gently to her chest. "Is she okay?" I ask immediatly. "I'm afraid not" The doctor says. "She has bradycardia" He says. "And that means?" I ask, unable to help my self from being impatient. "It means her heartbeat is very slow and infrequent" "What are you going to do? You can do something about this can't you?" I ask. "I think our best bet is to get her to the hospital." "No!" I moan. "This is not good" She continues to be asleep, I've heard that Xanex is supposed to be a seven hour drug, so she'll be asleep for 5 more hours after the plane lands. "So there's nothing you can do? NOTHING?" "I'm sorry" The doctor says, "I think she needs the emergence room" "Are we landing soon?" I cry. The flight attendant answers the question. The button dings, and she announces that the plane is landing, and that everyone must return to their seats at once. "Hey" The doctor says, "Good luck" I nod, not wanting to say something rude, because I really don't feel like being polite to the ultra unhelpful guy who calls himself a doctor, but to be fair he probably actually is a doctor, seeing only a doctor would be able to hold a stethoscope next to someone's chest and diagnose them with something like bradycardia, unless of course he is a medical student or something, or just someone who knows a lot about medicine and for some reason carries around medical equipment. "We're almost there babe" I say to her. "Hold in there" "We will be landing in Los Angeles, very soon" The attendant announces, "Please buckle up your seat belts and remove all electronics." I wish I didn't agree to having her take a Xanex in the first place she is out, I will probably have to carry both her and all my luggage, plus all of her luggage. No! I think to myself pushing that thought as far away from my head as possible, that is the least of my issues. What is important is if Brooke is all right. I can worry about luggage later. I carry her over my shoulder like a bag of potatoes, the same way I carried her last night after our disasterous game of table tennis. Only this time it is not so sexy, she looks like she just rolled out of bed which is true, her bed headed hair is in a low loose pony tail and she is not wearing make up "I can't wait long enough for the line to die down. I realize that it is a full plain and that other people have to get off just as much as we do. But eventually, I can not stand it any more. "MOVE PEOPLE MOVE!" I shout. Everyone gives me intimidated looks, but I guess seeing me carrying my ailing wife over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, as well as the luggage we had taken on the plane, changes everyone's mind. "Go!" an old lady says, "Get out of here!" "Get her to the hospital at once" The doctor says. I almost forget to get all our non carry on suitcases, but then I remember all our important stuff. I freak out completely when I realize I don't really know what to do with all that stuff, I might crack my back open carrying all this luggage, and my wife. Cracking my back however should be the last thing on my mind. Priorities. Get Brooke to a hospital. I end up having to make two trips, which I am definitely not so happy about, not in the slightest. once everything is in place I speed as fast as I can over to the closest hospital. Brooke does not make any signs of waking up. "Hang in their babe" I say to her. You're going to be all right" This is a complete lie, or maybe not a complete lie, but a lie none the less" /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"There is a huge gap in my memory between the events between driving to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room. It all just happened so fast. So now I am nervously sitting in the waiting room, only the word nervous wouldn't suffice. I try to let my mind wander, it somehow wanders back to the evening before our honeymoon. Then night my old neighbors and good friends of ours Mac and Kelly had taken us out to dinner at the Fig Tree, which was our all time favorite restaurant. I really should have known there was something up with Brooke, because after a week of no falling spells or any clumsy moments, she was suddenly back at it again. "C'mon Brooke they're here!" I said as a big blue van pulled up into our driveway. As soon as she got up from the couch she tripped and fell down. Thankfully she didn't get hurt, but she did however ruin one of the soles of her bright red knee high leather high healed boots, that matched beautifully with her Vera Wang red dress and fancy red hair barrettes. "You okay?" I asked her. "Yeah!" She said, "My foot just fell asleep there" She smiled meekly. She got herself up from the ground as if it were nothing, then realized that something was not right "Oh man, the soul of my shoe" She cried. It appeared that it had broken off completely, but I really had no time to worry about it, not then "Just put on another pair" I told her, "They're waiting on us" She seemed really hot and bothered about her shoe, and was a real hot mess. "I wanted to wear these ones" She cried. She almost sounded like she was on the verge of tears, yet I had no idea why, it couldn't have possibly have been about her shoes, even though they were a really nice pair. "Here just wear these!" I said handing her a different pair, this time not a pair of high heels. Clogs. "I'm not wearing these!" She snapped, her voice filled with exasperation "Just slip them on" I told her evenly. She then dissolved into tears. I totally saw that coming, yet I'm not sure why. She'd just been moody as fuck since after our wedding. "I'm not wearing these god damnit!" She wailed. "They're hideous." I looked down at the brown, leather pair of clogs, she's wasn't wrong they were hideous. "What's going on with you sweetie?" I asked. "You seem really exasperated, are you all right?" /span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;""Damnit Ted" She snapped, tears of anger ran down her cheeks, "I'm not exasperated, that was just my favorite pair of boots ever." When I said she seemed exasperated, I didn't just mean that day right then, I meant all week, she had been stand offish and moody all week. "We'll get you another pair" I say, "Maybe we'll get something in Mexico." She then took the pair of clogs as well as her broken high heeled boot and hurled them all at the wall. I had never seen Brooke, or anyone for that matter get so worked up over a broken shoe. "We can't replace them" She sobbed, "You don't understand, those were custom made for me, and they were so damn expensive, Whitney got them custom made in Paris" I knew that it wasn't about the shoes, but I didn't dare say anything. There was suddenly a knock on the door. I felt so terrible about keeping them waiting. I rushed to the door right away. Mac and Kelly were standing at the door, they were both dressed up very nicely. "I'm so sorry to keep you two waiting" I said. "Brooke's kind of a hot mess right now" "Is there anything we can do?" Kelly asked. "I don't know" I said, "She's having problems with her shoes. Brooke was sitting on the first floor of the staircase her face was still very wet. Her mascara was running again the same way it had been at our wedding. "Are you okay sweetie?" Kelly asked. Brooke shook her head as more and more tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's a disaster" She moaned. She had always been a bit of a drama queen, but wow. "What happened?" Kelly asked. Brooke just pointed to the wall, where she had thrown her shoes. "Oh dear" Kelly said, "It looks like you broke your heal" "It looks terrible" Brooke moaned bitterly. "Hey" Mac sad giving her a generous pat on the shoulder. "Nothing a little super glue can't fix" Brooke once again broke into a fit of anger. "Super glue?" She yelled, 'SUPER GLUE? It can absolutely not be fixed with super glue god damnit" She then went all doe eyed. "Oh, I'm sorry" She said. Her mood swings seemed like they were going to be an awful lot to get used to. Maybe she was just on her period or something. "You got any super glue?" Mac asked, "We got some in the garage" I said. "I'll take this" Mac says, taking the shoe. "So where's Stella?" I asked Kelly. "She's at the sitters tonight?" She said. "I wanted this strictly to be an adult get together" 'Good luck with that' I thought bitterly to myself, Brooke was not behaving like much of an adult. "She's gotta be what four years old now?" I asked. "She's going to turn 5 in a couple of weeks" Kelly said proudly. Mac returned from the garage, with Brooke's left shoe. "Good as new" He said. "Thank you" Brooke said sullenly. She then looked disapprovingly at the heel. "What's wrong?" Mac asked. "It's too noticeable" She complained. She then pointed out that super glue was still leaking. God damnit what a spoiled princess she was being. "Not to worry" Mac said, he then took it over to the kitchen sink and cleaned it off with a rag. "Here you are Brooke" He said when he was finished "good as new." Brooke continued to appear dissatisfied. "Now what's wrong?" Mac asked. "Skid marks" She cried. "Hey" I said, "No one's going to be looking at your feet, let's just go already" "It's okay" Kelly said, "We're actually here a bit early." "I think these shoes are ruined" Brooke said sadly, even though her other shoe was perfectly fine. "Oh dear" Kelly said, "How did you ruin them?" She asked. "I was" She said, trying to think up a valid excuse, I assume "I was doing my laundry, our laundry I suppose and my bed sheet got wrapped around one of my feet and I tripped and fell, and yeah." Yeah I suppose that was basically the story except there was no laundry involved, she just fell, why the fuck didn't she just say her foot fell asleep? Her and her lies. "It's probably never a good idea to do laundry in high heels" Kelly said smirking. "Do you have another pair of shoes you could wear, maybe another nice pair of red heels?" "She has about a million pairs of shoes" I said exasperated. "I'm not really sure what's so special about these ones. C'mon let's go" "Hold on" Kelly said, "We'll find you some new ones." Brooke was suddenly in fresh tears. "I wanted to wear those ones" She moaned, "They were just SO perfect" "Do you have any other red ones?" Kelly asked. "Just wear the clogs" I said impatiently. "NO!" She cried. "I'm not wearing those hideous beasts on my feet" "She's not lying" Mac had said. "Those are some butt ugly shoes" "They're not that bad" I said. "I'll get her some shoes" Kelly said, "Your bedroom is upstairs right?" "Right" I said shortly. In what seemed like hours she reappeared with a pair of sandals. "Will these work?" She asked. "Sure!" Brooke said poutingly, obviously they were far from what she wanted on her feet, but she went with it, and for the rest of the night the broken boots were never mentioned again. I was glad that she didn't try to wear another pair of high heels, because she had a couple more falling spells as we got to the Fig Tree's parking lot. Almost over night she had developed a severe case of week ankles. I was beginning to wonder if maybe she wasn't really trying to sabotage our wedding, maybe she really did have something genuinely wrong with her. I tried to push it to the back of my mind. Things went smoothly during the first few minutes at the fig tree, but then once we got our glasses of water, I worried, and now in retrospect, I realize that maybe I didn't really worry as much as I should have. I should have been much more worried. She took a sip of her water, and suddenly her face turned red and purple the same way it had at her wedding when she choked on her wedding cake. As pathetic as it may sound I acted like a war veteran returning from Vietnam, PSTD about our wedding started to occur. She began coughing. "Brooke you all right?" Mac asked pounding her hard the back. I recognized this from the wedding, she was choking all right. "Mac you know CPR?" I asked, "Yeah I know the Hiemlich menuver" He said, he then began giving her chest compressions the same way Garf had done at the wedding. Brooke started coughing up huge chunks of ice. "You all right?" Mac asked her again. "Yeah I think so" She said. She then leaned over and vomited water like a drowning victim./span/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 27.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman';"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;""What?" I ask, I have been very rudely snapped out of my reverie, not that it is by any means a reverie I want to relive in any way shape or form. "We're going to run some tests on your wife, we need to ask you a couple of questions." A male nurse is telling me, "Has she woken up yet?" I ask. "Unfortunately not" The male nurse says, "When we were on the airplane, the lady across from the aisle gave her a Xanex" I tell him, "When?" He asks, "About three hours ago" I say, "It should have warn off by then, how big was the dosage?" "I don't know" I say, "I didn't see her give it to her" "I think she's going to be okay" The doctor says, "I don't think so" I say, "She's not going to be okay. She's not okay at all" The nurse writes this down, it is so nerve racking to be talking about personal things like this with a doctor or nurse rather in the waiting room where other people can probably hear us. "Can we go somewhere in private?" I ask. "Sure of course" The male nurse says. "She's not waking up?" I ask, I am in a state of panic now. "She hasn't" The doctor says, "I want to see her" I cry, "I want to see my wife" "Hang on" The nurse says, "Who says I can't see her?" I snap, "Listen, what's your name?" "It's Ted, Ted Sanders" I say, "We're going to have to keep her overnight" "Overnight?" I cry, "I'm sorry" He says, "I'm going to ask you some questions, try not to freak out" "Don't tell me not to freak out!" I snap and am astonished by my own anger. "It's going to be okay" He coaxes me. "How could you say that?" I cry. "You can't talk to her, she's asleep, she can't give you any answers" "Which is exactly why I'm asking you" He explains putting on his glasses. I realize that, that was kind of an off thing to say, maybe I'm just in such a huge state of panic and anger that I can't get a single straight thought through my head. I really hope he doesn't want to check my head or anything like that. "I can't tell you how she's feeling" I say evenly, "Because she won't talk about it, she just sweeps it under a rug" The nurse nods. "Sweeps what under a rug?" He asks. "She's been weird since our wedding" I say, I now feel even more terrible about ever even thinking she was trying to sabotage the wedding, but I suppose to my defense, what else would I would have expected, she did cry about my proposal. Oh my god, I think to myself, I was fucking drunk and I proposed to her of course she fucking cried. I am such a fucking asshole. I wish I could take it all back, now she's in the emergency room and hasn't woken up. "Is she going to be okay?" I ask as fat tears run down my cheeks. "I don't know" He says, "I can't tell you" "Fuck" I cry. "FUCK!" "you might want to keep it down" He hisses, "There are children in this ward" I wipe off my tears. "Please tell me she's going to be okay" I then begin having a sobbing fit. "Please" "I understand that you're upset" He says, "But you're going to have to give me some rational answers," I clear my throat and wipe my tears. "Well first of all, she kept dropping the wedding ring, she just suddenly over night became a butter fingers. She like lost all her motor coordination" "That's not good" He says, "No damn right it's not" I sob, "Then she got even worse when it came to our dance, she just kept falling and bumping into things, she kept saying she was having clumsy moments, but she is not clumsy, that's just not who she is. She's so coordinated, so what gives?" The nurse looks at me as if he's had an aha moment. "She may have something wrong with her inner ear" He suggests, "Or" He puts on his glasses, "She may have a serious brain infection, motor clumsiness can often times be a hallmark symptom of Encephalitis" "Oh my god!" I cry. "You really think so?" I don't really know too much about Encephalitis, but from what I do know it is a serious brain thing." "I think that may be a very good thing to test her for, go on" He says, I guess he assumes I have more to say. "She choked on her wedding cake, I don't know much about Encephalitis, is that a common symptom?" "Choking on wedding cake?" He asks. I have no time for his humor or whatever that is supposed to be, or maybe he's really dumb enough to think that is what I meant "Choking" I say trying not to let my voice sound too harsh. "It very well could be yes" He says. My heart races in side my chest, my stomach drops the way it does whenever I go on the screeching eagle ride at the amusement park, my shirt feels like it is sticking to my skin. My throat becomes very dry. I have to swallow a bunch before I can speak again. "After the wedding she was doing really well, although I guess she did spill hot tea all over her during a meeting with the therapist," He nods his head slowly, "But actually now that I think about it, she really hasn't been doing fine" "Which is it?" The nurse asks, "you're going to have to be straight with me here son" "She wasn't doing well" I say. "She had more clumsy moments, she always laughed them off and tried to be cute and funny about them, and like I said earlier swept them under a rug" "I see" The nurse says, there is an annoyed heir about him. "I guess I just pretended she was doing fine just now because she made no big deal of it, she was just so, so, so nonchalant about it, I should have recognized it before, I should have known she might have something seriously wrong with her, I should have convinced her to go to the hospital right away. Then things took a turn for their worst on our honeymoon, she got so sick, she couldn't stop losing her balance, she couldn't even hold onto the ping pong racket. We cut the trip a day early, and she got really bad on the airplane, thank god there was a doctor on board, he diagnosed her with bradycardia" "Thanks for telling me" He says slowly, "You think you got something?" I ask, "Well before we do anything, we're going to try to rule out any serious brain infections, and that includes Encephalitis, Meningitis, and West Nile Virus" My shirt becomes all sticky again, I can not stop sweating, and that screeching eagle ride feeling in my stomach returns. "Excuse me" A doctor says. "You're Brooke's husband is that right" "Oh my god" I say, "Is she okay?" "She's fine, her heart beat is back to normal, and she is awake, she's eating some applesauce" That is all good news, the fact that she's eating applesauce is a little irrelevant and was to tell you the truth something I could have easily gone without hearing, but whatever. "So she's okay" I say, relief spills over me. "Her pulse is unusually low, so we might have to keep her over night, and as my nurse has informed you, we will have to run some tests" "Oh my god" I cry, I hope I don't sound too mushy about all this, but I really can't help it. "Can I see her?" I ask. "You better make this fast" He says, "We got tests to do, thank you for your help Ted" He says. I rush into her hospital room. "Are you all right?" I ask throwing my arms around her. "No!" She sobs. "No I'm not Ted. I'm sick" "Wait what?" I ask, she can't possibly know that she's sick already. "You don't know that for sure" I say, even though I am certain that she obviously is. "I can know that" She says, "There's been something wrong with me since the day of our wedding" She struggles a lot with her little cup of applesauce. I almost want to spoon feed it to her, but I am not that type to be all mushy and sentimental. The nurse sticks his head in the door. "Excuse me" He says, "I'd like to ask your wife a couple of questions, I may have to ask you to leave" I hold Brooke's hand tightly, "Whatever you need to say, you can say it in front of me." "I'm going to ask you to leave" he repeats I reluctantly leave. I stand next to the door with my ear pressed tightly against it. "How are you feeling?" I hear him ask my wife. "I'm looking for specific answers. The voices sound muffled due to being behind the door, but I have a pretty good idea of what they were saying. "I feel like my head's in a foggy mist" I hear her say. There is a long pause, I assume that maybe he is busy writing something down, but I do know one thing and that is the silence is not a good thing. "My hands feel like inflated balloons" I hear her say. "Interesting way of putting it" The nurse says, I can swear I hear him scribbling away with the pencil and pad of paper. "Excuse me!" A night nurse says. I am so astonished that I jump, I have gotten to thinking that there is no one else in this hospital, just me, Brooke, and the nurse. "What are you doing there son?" "I'm um, just leaving yeah" "Is that so?" She asks. "Okay fine" I say, "I'm staying, I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my wife, she's in that room right here" "I'm really sorry to hear that" She says, "That's really too bad, but I'm going to ask you to leave." "I need to know what's going on" I say, "I know you're really freaking out and everything, and I can't say I blame you and everything but it's hospital policies. I know she's your wife and everything but you need to go sit in the waiting room, just like everybody else" "Fine!" I snap. Just then the door swings open and the nurse steps out. "We're going to have to run some tests" He says, "What kinds of tests" I ask "From talking to her, it sounds like it's one of the brain diseases I suggested. You should get some rest, why don't you go home?" "I'm staying here" I say/span/p 


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